Local Elections 5th May 2011

On March 2nd, at the request of the local Conservative party, the SwampedbyCars team met some of the new Conservative candidates who will be standing in the Local Elections. We had been asked to explain our campaign and give our views on the parking problems affecting the roads closest to the University and how the excess of student cars is causing problems for the town. When we met the candidates we had agreed not to go public with the news that Peter Lewis is standing down from the Nanpantan Ward and that the empty seat will be contested by Margaret Smidowicz JP. As this news is now public, we no longer need to keep it under wraps. At that time we believed that Jane Hunt would continue as one of our two Conservative councillors. See our next post for up-to-date news on Jane. Having met some of the Conservative candidates we then suggested to Max Hunt, leader of the local Labour Party, that we would be willing to meet some of the Labour party members standing either in Nanpantan Ward or nearby wards that suffer similar parking problems. We were very pleased to meet four of their new candidates including Ruth Sinclair and Mike Cahill who will be standing in Nanpantan Ward on the 14th March. Ruth and Mike now have circulated their local election address in this area and on the back of the letter they are asking for; the issues that most concern you and what you would like them to focus on? This is your chance to get the message across, there are too many student cars being brought to the town and the town can't cope. The Borough Council has the power, working with the University, to control this problem.